


By Io’s Soft Glow

by LooNEY_DAC



Series: LooNEY_DAC's Endless Adventures Continuity [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 04:54:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10564026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LooNEY_DAC/pseuds/LooNEY_DAC
Summary: What if your imaginary friend were real?A "ghostly" love story (eventually).





	

Most every kid has an invisible friend, I suppose: a glimmering figment of their fertile young mind; a companion who always understands what they _really_ meant and always wants to play that one game no one else does. It’s just how kids work.

My invisible friend is real, though.

You probably guffawed at that; many have before you, and probably many will after you. It remains the truth, though: unlike the vast majority of those who say--and even believe--that their invisible friend is real, I am neither lying nor insane.

This is the story of my invisible friend and me.

*

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime: an all-expenses-paid stay at The Nest, one of the finest hotel/casinos in Miles Gloriosus (and therefore, on all of Io), for a randomly selected family from the Jovian Hydro Mining colony Peregrine City (one of many roving the Great Red Spot). This random selection fell upon my parents and four of their children, which included me. Somehow, I managed to mess it all up, though, in accordance with my usual habit of attracting catastrophe.

They told me later that I was climbing something I wasn’t supposed to climb (always a favorite pastime of mine); that I perforce fell and severely injured myself; that I was given the best of care during my recovery; and that I very nearly died despite it all. I don’t remember any of that, but I do remember waking up in the hospital to find Katie staring back at me curiously.

My first thought was, _What a lot of pink._ She was in a dainty pink pinafore with a truly staggering number of ruffles on it, and her red hair was done up to look like Pippi Longstocking’s. We were both around the same age: eight.

We said hi and introduced ourselves; my name is Colin Twelfth Johnson, as I’m the 12th son of John First Johnson; hers is Lucia Cornelia Catriona (“But call me Katie”), as she’s a member of the Cornelia _gens_ which runs so many of the various gambling and entertainment venues on Io.

Since I’m a Twelfth, I was supposed to be a Settler; that is, when I reached my majority, I would join a group of others and “settle” a brand-new SkyCity roving the atmosphere of Jupiter. Such was what I was initially programmed to be. While this would later change, at the time I was rather conscious that Katie was a member of the Upper Crust of Io, and although my parents toed the JHM line that those of Io were jumped-up thieves, pirates and Mafiosos, the Upper Crust was still the Upper Crust.

Fortunately for me, Katie never thought of anything like that; I suspect she was far too happy to have someone her own age with whom to converse to care about that kind of thing. Still, it made our first few days together a bit awkward, which is another reason I know Katie’s real.

There were not a few others, especially at first, but they were all adults of varying age. One was Katie’s tutor, who let me sit in on her lessons every so often. Another was a waitress, and there were a bunch of technical guys who had been working on the bar where she worked: a plumber, a wiring guy, and a stagehand. Every so often, I (and usually Katie, too) would share a dream with one or more of them.

There was also a bank robber...


End file.
